FRESNO, Calif. – Alaiyah San Juan caught fire and tried to will her team towards a victory, but Dominican women's basketball ultimately fell 75-68 to Chico State on Saturday afternoon at the Special Events Center.

San Juan tied a career high leading all players with 29 points to go with six rebounds and three steals for the Penguins (1-4). Adia Walker was the only other player in double-figures for Dominican finishing with 10 points and three rebounds. Meadow Aragon led the Wildcats (2-0) with 16 points and four rebounds. Chico State was excellent on offense shooting 47.3% from the field and 58.3% from distance, while Dominican knocked down 39.3% of its shot from the field and 38.9% from 3-point range.

The Penguins jumped ahead early as Abigail Cooper and San Juan knocked down back-to-back shots behind the arc before Cooper ended the opening 8-3 run with a layup off of San Juans' first steal of the game. The teams traded bucket until the midway point of the quarter when Aragon worked her way inside for a layup through contact for an old-fashioned 3-point play before Kaila Woo laid it in to take a 15-14 lead with 3:22 left in the period. San Juan quickly knocked down a 3-pointer on the other end to retake the lead briefly, but a 7-0 run put the lead back in the hands of Chico State at 22-17.

The Wildcats took their 5-point advantage into the second period with Woo hitting from beyond the arc to push it to eight. Taylor Linzie connected on a short jumper before San Juan connected behind the arc again to make it 27-24 with 7:44 left in the half. The Wildcats extended their lead once again with Jaden Clifton making it 35-26 with a 3-pointer with 4:55 remaining. After the lead grew to 10, Julianne Cotterill worked her way inside for a layup before Alex Salise drew a foul on a fast break, knocking down both shots from the charity stripe to cut the Penguins' deficit to 42-36 at the break.

San Juan swiped two more passes to begin the second half leading to her own jumper and a 3-pointer from Salise as Dominican began to eat into the lead. San Juan drove to the hoop the next time down the court and laid it in to bring the Penguins back within two at 45-43 with 7:15 remaining in the third. Salise then capped off a 7-0 run with a 3-pointer to give Dominican a 52-49 lead three minutes later, but the momentum was short lived as Kamil Reid made back-to-back layups for the Wildcats to retake a small advantage. 

Chico State slowly added to its lead as Aragon connected on a layup before a jumper by Jordan Allred pushed its advantage to 65-57 with six minutes remaining in the game. The Penguins closed within four twice before the Wildcats pushed the lead back to three possessions were they held it to the end of the game. 

Dominican will head home next to host Cal State Monterey Bay in the CCAA/PacWest Challenge on Friday at 7 p.m. PDT at the Conlan Recreation Center.